Chair-seat.



A. WANNER, JR. CHAIR SEAT.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 28, 1909.

938,730. Patented Nov.2, 1909.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

WITNESSES ATTURNEY;

mmzzw. a emu-w m, Pumaumoonwuzns. WASHINGTON, 11c.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

ATTORNEY.

" Patented Nov. 2, 1909;

A. WANNER, JR. CHAIR SEAT.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 28, 1909.

WITNESSES 9 ANDREW B. GRAHAM co. PnoTo-mnomumms wwnnmcu n c UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALBERT WANNER, JR, OF I-IOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY.

CHAIR-SEAT.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, ALBERT IVANNER, Jr., a citizen of the United States, residing in Hoboken, l-Iudson county, New Jersey, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Chair-Seats; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, suchas will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and the letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

The usual means for supporting the padding or other cushioning medium in upholstered and similar seats consists of bands or straps, known as girths, composed of stout woven fabric and interwoven or interlaced with each other. It is well known that in use these bands or straps, even when made of material best suited for the purpose, yield to pressure imposed upon them only because they stretch. Their elasticity is practically inappreciable, and any elasticity which the seat possesses is due rather to the padding, springs or the like interposed between the girths and the cover therefor. Besides therefore imposing greater wear and tear on the other elements of the seat than should be, the girths become stretched more and more the longer they are used, so that sooner or later the seat sags and its cover, particularly if it be of leather or the like, assumes a loose or baggy appearance. Further, the girths alter in length under changing atmospheric conditions, so that this will allow the seat to appear at times in proper form and at other times loose or baggy.

My object is to provide a supporting means for the padding or other cushioning medium in a seat which will possess elasticity of a considerable and enduring degree, may be manufactured atthe minimum of cost and will be peculiarly light and strong in construction. And this object I accomplish by interweaving or interlacing strips of wood each comprising a plurality of layers having their 'rains crossed so that by virtue of its StllTIlGSS and elastictiy, and because each strip is preferably fixed posi tively at both ends in a suitable frame, it will under all conditions tend to retain a definite disposition, that is, the plane which the support thus formed is initially made and intended to occupy. Such a structure Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed. May 28, 1909.

Patented Nov. 2, 1909.

Serial No. 498,843.

will not sag under ordinary atmospheric conditions, and immediately following the relaxation of any pressure tending to depress it, it will resume its normal condition because of the stiff elastic nature of its component strips. The strips employed are preferably out from three-ply veneer having the grains of adjoining layers crossed; thus the desired stiffness is obtained and, instead of the strips beinglikely to snap or break or bend too sharply where they cross each other, the desired elasticity is imparted.

The invention will be found fully illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein, I have illustrated it in connection with an ordinary chair (although it will be understood that the invention is applicable to many other types of seating appliances) and wherein,

Figure 1 is a plan view of a chair seat showing parts of its cover, the padding and the usual piece of burlap or the like on which the padding rests broken away so as to show the underlying support and the manner in which the same is attached to the frame; Fig. 2 is a sectional view on the line at of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a plan view of the frame and the improved support; Fig. 4 is a sectional view on the line yy of Fig. 1; Fig. 5 is a plan of a piece of three-ply veneer from which the strips are cut, the two upper plies being partly broken away; and, Fig. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view of what is shown in Fig. 5.

In the drawings, a designates the open frame of an ordinary chair, the same having the interior rabbet Z),- 0 designates the usual piece of burlap or the like which overlies the girths (to be described); d is the padding and e the usual fabric cover tacked or otherwise secured to the frame a in any suitable manner.

From a piece of three-ply veneer f, shown in Fig. 5, having the grains of adjoining layers crossing each other, I cut in suitable lengths the strips 9 which are to form the girths. These girths are interwoven or in terlaced with each other, for instance in the manner shown in the drawings, and their ends made to rest in the rabbet Z) of the frame a, where they'are secured to the frame preferably by means of the staples h or other devices not calculated to cause the strips to split.

It will be observed that incidentally I socure a considerable advantage in respect to facility in the operation of assembling the interwoven support with the frame over the same operation where fabric or similar girths are employed in that it is unnecessary to exert tension on the girths when attaching them.

The material of the girths being stiff and elastic, they normally maintain under all ordinary conditions their initial disposition, and immediately after pressure applied to them has been removed they resume that condition, because any yield which they allow is not dependent upon their stretching but upon their being forced from a sinuous into a more straightened form, which latter form they tend to resist assuming because of such stiffness and elasticity. I prefer to employ wood for the material of the strips because of its lightness, its cheapness and of the facility of applying it; and I preferably use three-ply veneer having the grains of its layers crossed so as to increase the resistance of each strip to any tendency to break or even bend too sharply at the edges of the strips crossing it.

Another advantage obtained in the use of my improved support is that it aflords a means to which the spiral springs often employed in upholstered seats may be readily attached in such a way as not to work loose or out of place.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

The combination, in a seat for seating appliances, of a frame, a cushioning means, and a support for the cushioning means consisting of interwoven strips of elastic stiff material fixed at their ends to the frame, each strip being composed of a plurality of wooden layers having their grains crossing each other, substantially as described.

In testimony, that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand this 26th day of May, 1909.

ALBERT VVANNER, JR.

lVitnesses M. H. KuN'rz, CHAS. E. IVALTER. 

